Reviews | Robb Sutton

13 Lucky Free Web Content Management Systems for a WordPress Hater

August 3, 2011 By Robb Sutton 22 Comments

I honestly see no reason for hating WordPress. Millions of people simply can’t be wrong. Just look at the numbers. 13,800,000 blogs running as self-hosted installations, and 13,900,000 active blogs on wordpress.com (2010 data). Of the top 1 million websites (according to Alexa) 12.4% use WordPress. That’s a whopping 124,000 of them.

But still, you don’t have to be preaching WordPress if you don’t want to. So if you’re about to launch a new website you might as well use a different web content management system (CMS). Or don’t use any CMS at all, and build the site from the ground up with pure PHP and HTML. Although this is probably not the best possible idea since there are tons of great systems out there.

Here’s a list of 13 top web content management systems you should consider if you’re not really into this WordPress thing.

1. Joomla!

(http://www.joomla.org/)

I had been a Joomla! (don’t forget about the exclamation mark) programmer for a couple of years before I switched to WordPress. Joomla! is an advanced, full-blown open source content management system that powers 2.7% of the entire web (as it’s claimed on joomla.org). Joomla! provides many functions you would expect from a CMS, plus has an impressive directory of extensions (8,065 of them at the time of writing). This CMS is great for all sorts of corporate websites or portals, online magazines, e-commerce stores, small business websites, and other.

If you want a social proof here’re some websites that use Joomla!: http://gsas.harvard.edu, http://www.outdoorphotographer.com, http://www.quizilla.com.

2. Drupal

(http://drupal.org/)

An open source platform as well. Drupal is close to the top of this list not without a reason. It’s a great CMS for building corporate websites, information portals, enterprise applications and even blogs. Plus, you can choose from more than 8,000 modules (extensions).

Some websites that use Drupal: http://www.fastcompany.com/, http://www.popsugar.com/, http://www.symantec.com/connect/, http://www.observer.com/.

3. CMS Made Simple

(http://www.cmsmadesimple.org/)

The name itself is pretty self-explanatory. CMS Made Simple is the winner of the “overall best open source CMS award 2010″ by Packt Publishing. It’s a scalable platform (suited both for small businesses and large corporations) and provides a really big list of features. Some of them are: SEO friendly URLs, user and group management, multiple language support, multiple themes per website, forms, polls, newsletters, guestbookÖ there’s no point to mention every single feature here, just go to cmsmadesimple.org and find out for yourself.

4. Plone

(http://plone.org/)

First non-PHP CMS on this list. Plone runs on Python. But what it runs on is not important to the end user. What is important though is its simple and easy to use interface. “Elegant minimalism” they call it. The new version of Plone is claimed to be 50% faster than the previous one and to be one of the fastest open source CMS platforms on the market. Its many features and constantly growing community makes it the top non-PHP choice.

5. XOOPS

(http://www.xoops.org/)

Back to PHP systems. Easy to use, feature-rich, and fully modularized ñ this pretty much sums it up. Some interesting features are: expanded users management and theme-based GUI (with over 1,000 currently available themes).

6. PHP-Nuke

(http://www.phpnuke.org/)

This one is old-school. It was one of the most popular systems when I was starting out as a PHP programmer. Fortunately, it hasn’t been forgotten and it’s still developed by a devoted community. The counter on phpnuke.org indicates more than 8,450,000 downloads, which is impressive to say the least.

7. e107

(http://www.e107.org/)

“e107, it’s pimp, init?” ñ one of the random sentences you see when you visit e107.org. This is a great, developer-friendly CMS with many interesting features, and if you think there’s something missing you can suggest a new feature. There’s a special section on the site for that. If you happen to be a product owner yourself then here’s a hint ñ there’s no better way of showing your community that you care than by letting them suggest new ideas for improvement.

8. Magnolia CMS

(http://www.magnolia-cms.com/)

It’s targeted mainly towards business users, so it’s no surprise it’s the CMS of choice for many government and large corporate websites. Among its many features there’s a possibility to preview content exactly as it would be seen by the website visitor. If you’ve been working with other CMS platforms you know that it’s not always the case. Sometimes it’s quite difficult to explain to your client why in the end the content looks differently from what they see in the editor. No such problem here.

9. dotCMS

(http://dotcms.com/)

This one is a Java-based content management system. You can choose from two available versions (free ñ Community version, and paid ñ Enterprise version). Similar to every CMS on this list this one provides a wide range of features as well. You can use it to manage small, micro-sites as well as large online magazines. If you’d like something built around Java this is basically the route to go.

10. b2evolution

(http://b2evolution.net/)

This is a blog content management system (similar to WordPress). Free and open source. It provides some classic, blog features but also many additional ones. It lets you manage files and photos, launch multiple blogs, use detailed user permissions and more. Of course, there’s a lot of available plugins too.

11. CuteNews

(http://cutephp.com/)

If you need something really simple you should consider this CMS. It’s basically just a news management system that uses some standard files instead of a normal database (like MySQL for example). Somehow it still manages to support things like commenting, archives, search function, file uploads, and even backup and restore.

12. CushyCMS

(http://www.cushycms.com/)

This CMS is probably one of the easiest to use platforms on this list. A “truly simple CMS” as the authors say. And it’s hard to disagree. I was really surprised when I learned how the CMS works because it uses none of the industry-standard ideas. The first surprising thing is that there’s no software to installÖ yea, how about that? I encourage you to find out for yourself. The video on cushycms.com is just 5 minutes.

13. Nucleus CMS

(http://nucleuscms.org/)

Basically a blog content management system running on PHP and MySQL (same as WordPress). What’s interesting about it is the fact that you can use it to launch multiple sites with a single installation. If you like to you can extend it with a number of plugins (which is kind of a standard for top-shelf CMS platforms these days). One of the more interesting features is the possibility to backup and restore the whole database with just a single click.

Which one is the best?

There’s no best or worst here. If you need a good, feature-rich, and safe content management system you can go with either one from this list. It’s best to check them all out and see which one appeals to you the most. And when you do, don’t forget to come back and let me know in the comments which one is it.

P.S. My favorite one is still WordPress sorry.

About the author: Karol K. (@carlosinho) is a 20-something year old web 2.0 entrepreneur from Poland who hates to work but loves to train capoeira. But anyway, tune in to get his blogging tips and tutorials.

Filed Under: Blogging, Reviews Tagged With: blog cms, blogging platforms, drupal, how to blog, joomla, which blogging platform should i use, wordpress

How To Leverage Twitter To Bring Old Posts Back To Life

March 21, 2011 By Robb Sutton 6 Comments

Blogging and WordPress do a lot of great things together. Search engines love the code and regularly updated content, writters find it easy to publish their content and sites are relatively easy to navigate and find what you want. In the web world, that is a pretty strong formula for success.

However, there is one plaguing problem in blogging platforms and structure that frustrates the hell out of bloggers over time.

We spend all of this time putting together articles that are meant to inform, entertain and help people only to find that a year later they are buried in the archives for no one to find. With regularly updated content, our timeless content continues to be pushed down the line making it harder to find by new readers and search engines alike. The easy fix is to remember these articles and link to them within new relevant articles, but how can we start to easily leverage social media to get those same articles in front of the eyes of our followers?

I started searching around to find a tool to do this for me as I do not want to be spending hours of my day scheduling these posts (I have better things to do that generate more income). After looking at the features of several different options, I landed on one that had what I needed and started the testing process.

WordPress Plugin: Tweet Old Post

First, let me start by saying I typically do not like automated systems. They tend to be very impersonal and everyone knows when you are using one even if you think they do not. If something is going to be automated, it needs to be highly configurable and able to integrate into more personal atmospheres easily by providing value.

I uploaded Tweet Old Post to my WordPress install of Blogging Labs and started the configuration process. Luckily, this free plugin allows you to do several essential tasks that make it usable for me in this application.

Timing of Old Post Tweets

You can set the random times that tweets go out to your followers. Part of the reason that Twitter is the perfect testing ground for a system like this is because the timeline moves quick enough that you will not be annoying people and it has a viral aspect to it that you hope your articles start to get retweeted. If you do it too often, people will ignore your links and unfollow you, so setting a random time for these tweets to hit your timeline hours apart does wonders for not looking like spam.

Excluding Categories

One of the biggest things I needed in a plugin such as this one was the ability to exclude entire categories from being tweeted out. Information that was tweeted from my archives needed to be timeless to still be relevant. I did not want old articles that are no longer applicable to today’s environment to get tweeted out because that would look terrible as it has zero value to my followers.

By being able to exclude categories, I can remove blocks of archives that should not be tweeted, or I do not feel provide enough value to my timeline. As you can see from my excluded lists, I tried to keep any articles from my archives to blogging tips, tutorials and advice.

Exclude Specific Posts

To fine tune the process even further, there were posts that I didn’t necessarily want retweeted within those categories as well for one reason or another.

Tweet Old Post allows you to also omit specific articles from being sent out to your followers automatically. Another great feature that I needed to insure the quality of the tweets would be at their highest.

After you have everything setup, an automated tweet ends up looking like this on your timeline.

A Couple Of Things To Keep In Mind…

Before you jump in headfirst and never look back, keep these couple of things in mind.

If you are going to set something like this up, you need to have some archives to pull from. As you can see, I really fine tuned my process, but if that came down to a dozen or so post by the time I was done, I would be sending out a very small number of articles over and over again. Talk about annoying for anyone that is following you.
You also need to gauge reactions within your Twitter following to see how people are taking the automation. In my @robbsutton account, the change was actually taken in very well and I am now getting traffic and RT’s into my older content…which was the goal. I even started asking around to followers to see what they thought and the overall reaction was positive.
I do not think this kind of automation would work with Facebook. The timeline does not move fast enough to keep you from clogging the system and in the end you would end up annoying friends and family at the same time. Saying that…if you have your Facebook account linked to your Twitter account so when you send out a tweet it updates your Facebook page, I would break that link before you start testing this out.

Overall, I have been happy with the result as I am always looking for ways to bring people to content that has been buried down over time. There are not very many efficient ways to get this accomplished, but Tweet Old Post seems to do a really good job by leveraging the fast moving timeline of Twitter. It’s highly configurable backend is the only reason I believe you can really make an automated system like this work.

But…just remember…you need to actually converse with your Twitter followers as well and RT other content. Your entire timeline can not be just automated tweets of your own content if you want to be successful with that online medium.

Download Tweet Old Post for free here.

Filed Under: Content, Plugins, Reviews, Social Media, Tutorials/How To Tagged With: archives, get more RT's, leveraging social media, refreshing old content, Social Media, tweet old post, twitter, viral content

How To Use Shortcodes To Draw More Attention To Your Blog Content

January 24, 2011 By Robb Sutton 6 Comments

Like it or not, your readers have ADD. In a world where instant gratification and the complete lack of in depth attention to details plagues the general public, it is our job as the blogger to capture attention and keep it long enough to get our point across with our content. I bet right now you are looking for ways to scan this article to see if you can get the relevant information quickly to see if it will help your blogging. By using attention grabbing elements in your content like bold headlines, catchy titles and other style elements, you are able to keep your readers on your pages longer by interacting not only with words…but visually.

What Are Shortcodes?

Shortcodes have come about in recent WordPress themes to help bloggers style their content in an easy to digest manner without having to know any coding. Before, the designer would have to build in certain styling aspects into the CSS of the theme and then the blogger would have to know how to call that css within an article without calling out any complex code (typcially RSS feeds break on some code and WordPress won’t actually recognize it within an article).

A [highlight color="yellow"]shortcode[/highlight] is a WordPress-specific code that lets you do nifty things with very little effort. Shortcodes can embed files or create objects that would normally require lots of complicated, ugly code in just one line. Shortcode = shortcut.

So what do you end up with? When you type something that looks like this (note the brackets around the text)…

[onehalf] Testing out shortcodes with 1/2 columns. [/onehalf] [onehalf last="last"] Hey look! Another 1/2 column! [/onehalf]

That ends up looking like this on your article. (Note: The following code was generated via a plugin you are about to see below and is not apart of the stock WordPress install or with my current theme.)

[one_half] Testing out shortcodes with 1/2 columns. [/one_half] [one_half last="last"] Hey look! Another 1/2 column! [/one_half]

By using brackets that call CSS elements in your code, you are able to simplify the process and use a predetermined library of functions to call out whatever you want to in your article. Basically, you are drastically simplifying the process of making your content easier to read while being able to grab more attention to elements that you deem important.

The Problem For The Blogger (You)

While shortcodes are an incredible way to create more engaging content, up until this point…most themes did not come with a library of shortcodes for you to choose from. Recently, themes from WooThemes and Theme Forest have started integrating shortcodes into their themes to give bloggers more options within their content. While this is great, it also runs into a unique problem for the blogger down the road. What if you want to change your theme to a different brand or custom option? All of the shortcodes that you setup within your content will become obsolete and your readers will see the brackets instead of the styling on all old articles!

One of the reasons I push WordPress so much for bloggers is the extensive ability to install plugins to enhance the WordPress experience. When you go to change how your site looks on the screen, your plugins go with your site as you update the look. The guys over at WPSwitch came up with an awesome plugin that makes your life much easier with shortcodes. With over 100 of different options, looks and tables, you are able to make columns, insert alerts, make picture slideshows and a whole host of other options to make your content more engaging. The best part…it operates independent of your theme via a plugin so you do not have to worry about transferring your shortcode styling when you change themes in the future. It is all integrated and ready to go once you hit the activate link.

To show you how easy this plugin is to use, I have put together this short screencast to show you how The Shortcode Kid plugin for WordPress operates.

If you are looking for an easy way to create more engaging content on your blog, I highly recommend the use of The Shortcode Kid plugin. It makes life much easier to create and manage shortcodes within your content and by using a plugin…you insure that the shortcodes will be compatible across future design needs. At $40.00 for the plugin, it is a premium option, but it adds a lot of value to your blog (future updates and additions to the plugin are free when you purchase).

Check out the rest of the shortcode options and pricing by clicking here.

Filed Under: Plugins, Reviews, Tutorials/How To Tagged With: plugin review, shortcode kid plugin, shortcodes, wordpress plugin review, wordpress shortcodes

How To Easily Create High Converting Squeeze and Sales Pages For Your eBooks and Products

January 12, 2011 By Robb Sutton 8 Comments

The #1 way to make money online is to sell your own products. Every single top blogger in the world has their own product of some kind, whether it be physical or digital. For most bloggers, the jump into their own product is normally in the form of an eBook or other digital product that your readers can purchase and download instantly, and I highly recommend you look into this form of monetization if you have not already.

However, there is one HUGE mistake that most bloggers make when looking to sell their own products online.

#1 Blogger Mistake: Bloggers often rely on their blog to be the sales page for their products.

If you are doing this right now, I already know what you are thinking. Why? Because I have been there.

You don’t want the reader to leave your site or your content.
You don’t know how to design a sales page or at least how to do one easily and cheaply.
You don’t have the time to set one up right now and the quickest way was to create a page on your blog.

Where is the flaw in using a page on your blog as the sales page for your eBook?

There are far too many distractions on your blog to keep high conversion rates on your products.

Think about it…the same reasons you want to keep the sales page on your blog are the same reasons it will not sell well. When your potential customer lands on your page, they need to have only one thing in mind…”what is this product, how will it benefit me and am I going to buy it for that price.” If that same potential customer also sees a list of your recent articles, navigation or worse…ads like Adsense, you are inviting them to find something else to do other than buy your product.

Sales Pages vs. Squeeze Pages

What is the difference between a sales page and squeeze page? At the end of the day…not much really. Each one is setup basically the same way, but they have a different end goal for the visitor of that page.

Squeeze Pages: Dedicated page to getting the opt-in to your newsletter. (ex: Problogging Is Dead)
Sales Pages: Dedicated page to converting sales of your product or service. (ex. Ramped Reviews)

So whether you are going for an opt-in to your newsletter or a sale of your product, sales and squeeze pages are going to convert at higher rates due to their design.

How To Create Sales & Squeeze Pages

Ideally, we would like to not have to hire a designer or operate outside of WordPress for our squeeze and sales pages, so when I went looking around for themes to accomplish this goal for me…I ran across OptimizePress. Not only did it promise to make my sales and squeeze page process much easier, but it also has some drip marketing, video and membership site features that I plan on using in the future.

Stats on OptimizePress:

Squeeze Page Building System – Create high impact squeeze page designs from a range of 10 templates, all tested and proven to convert – so you get more people on your mailing list fast!
Sales Letter & Offer Page Building System – Easily create sales letters, offer pages, bonus pages and more, with our unique point and click system. Now you can have pages that look like a pro-designer has created them, for a fraction of the price!
Launch Builder System – Use our unique launch page development system to create pre-launch and launch pages that boost response, with advanced features like integrated facebook comments, twitter sharing and more! Add your videos, headlines and call to action buttons with one-click! These pages will get your market buzzing about your product launch fast (this means more money for you when you go live!)
Add video to your pages with one click – just paste in your video URL (from Amazon S3 or similar) or use video from Youtube, Vimeo, Viddler or any other video hosting site. Using video is proven to boost response and conversions!
Unique iPad & iPhone Video compatibility – OptimizePress has been developed with a unique system to ensure your videos will also work on iPads and iPhones, which are fast becoming popular browsing platforms. Simply enter the URL of your video encoded in the correct format, and OptimizePress will do the rest!
Shortcodes Sales Letter Elements – Easily add extra headlines, subheadlines, bullet blocks, content boxes, order boxes and more to your sales letters and offer pages with our point and click shortcodes – no more messy HTML and CSS!
Cross Browser Compatible – All our designs are coded with the latest HTML and CSS standards, and have been tested on all the latest browsers (and some older ones too!). This means more people will be able to access your pages and see them as you desired!
Built in SEO features – We know SEO is important to you, so we’ve integrated some of the most popular SEO features such as setting the title tags, descriptions, keywords and more for each of your pages individually, without the need for plugins (of course you can use your favourite plugins too if you wish!)

Basically, you install the theme and start the process of creating your page through the use of short codes. It also perfectly integrates with all of the major newsletter service providers (I use Aweber) if you are looking to create a squeeze page or easily capture the contact information of your customers.

Just to show you how easy this theme is to use, I have put together this quick video that gives you a look at the backend in the page creation screen. Now…keep in mind…this is a very simplistic look as you can really expand on the features of OptimizePress to make it your own.

What Have Been My Results?

Over the past month, I have converted all of my sales and squeeze pages on Blogging Labs and Bike198 over to OptimizePress. Overall, my conversion rates have increased about 20% just by having better looking, easier to setup sales pages for my eBooks. I am going to start split testing different content to see how I can get my conversions even higher, but so far I am incredibly happy with the result and ease of setup with this theme. Everything you need, from graphics packages to all of the icons and buttons, are included with the theme and the settings are easy to understand. If you have installed a WordPress theme in the past…you should have zero problem getting this setup.

At $97.00, it is on the high end of WordPress themes these days, but I do believe it is worth it as I have barely even scratched the surface of what it is capable of. Also, the increase in sales has more than offset the price of the theme which makes it worth it on its own. If you are looking for a high-quality, easy to setup option for your sales and squeeze pages, OptimizePress is an incredible option. Through my entire testing period, I only had one glitch and that was fixed with the latest update (the add to cart buttons were not working in Chrome…but that is fixed now) and the support has been incredible. Anyone can setup high converting pages with OptimizePress.

Click here to see the rest of OptimizePress’s features or purchase.

Filed Under: Reviews, Tutorials/How To, Wordpress Theme Tagged With: landing page, optimizepress, premium wordpress theme, sales page, sales page wordpress theme, squeeze page, wordpress theme review

Is A WordPress Theme Framework Right For Your Blog?

December 20, 2010 By Robb Sutton 13 Comments

Over the past couple of years, WordPress theme frameworks have been growing in popularity. With features like SEO integration and clean coding, frameworks like Thesis, Headway, Genesis and Platform Pro are continuing to take their bite out of the premium WordPress theme market. As you look at your blog and try to decide what look is going to go over well with your readers, it is natural to look towards these options due to their popularity in the market and marketing push, but are they the right option for your blog?

Over the past couple of weeks, I have redesigned my two biggest blogs incorporating frameworks. This blog, Blogging Labs, got the Pagelines Platform Pro treatment and Bike198 made the switch to Studiopress’s Genesis framework. Before we jump straight into if you should be looking to frameworks for your blog, let’s take a quick look at the before and after on each of my blogs.

You can see the layouts and themes live by clicking here: Bike198.com | Blogginglabs.com | StudioPress Genesis | Pagelines Platform Pro

The Positives: Theme Frameworks

WordPress theme frameworks provide a lot of positive features for the blogger and these features are what make frameworks popular today. Let’s take a look at some of the most significant.

Easy Upgrades Over Time

In a typical setup, a WordPress theme framework acts as the underbelly to your theme. When installed, you do not edit or make changes to the theme itself, but you instead make a “child theme” that lays over top the framework. All of your coding, design and other changes are made within this child theme separate of the framework. When it comes time to upgrade Thesis, Genesis or any other framework you chose to run, you can completely upgrade the theme without having to change the core files again to reflect your changes. This is HUGE for bloggers who have really created their own look.

Provides A Solid Foundation For Custom Themes

Before theme frameworks, when you wanted a full custom WordPress theme, your designer had to go through the long task of converting their pages into the WordPress format. This procedure had a large cost to it as they are trying to get a specific look to integrate with WordPress. With theme frameworks, designers can take that look and lay it over a solid WordPress foundation seamlessly drastically reducing the amount of time it takes to develop a custom look. This also reduces to the cost to the blogger and allows for more “custom” options to lower budgets.

On the bloggers end, it also does not keep you tied to one designer as most of the community can work directly over these frameworks, so if your designer decides to hang up his designing hat…you can still find someone else that can work on your site without having to dig through custom code. The framework’s code is also very clean, so the blogger does not have to worry about the designers coding ability as that can have an adverse affect on page load speed and SEO if done incorrectly.

Hooks Provide Placement Advantage

Do you want to add a advertisement at the bottom of every article? How about a new global nav? This used to be a hard and tedious procedure as you had to dig through pages of code and test what would work to edit your core files and add that feature. Now…with theme frameworks and their implementation of hooks, you can easily add elements to your blog without having to edit core files. Some frameworks like Headway and Platform Pro allow drag and drop functionality and other frameworks like Thesis and Genesis have plugins that make things easier on the blogger. Either way…you are guaranteed to be able to add elements quickly and easily without affecting your core files.

Negatives: Theme Frameworks

However, like most things in life…nothing is perfect so you need to take a look at these drawbacks to theme frameworks before you make the decision to use one on your blog.

Do You Know How To Design?

When you activate your theme framework for the first time, you are going to notice that your site looks incredibly bland. Have you ever seen those plain white Thesis based sites popping up all over the web? That is because they bought the theme, activated it and started writing without any real knowledge of what it takes to make a blog look unique. Your blog design is one of your most important converting elements behind content. Your blog needs to stand out amongst the competition…not look exactly like it. If you do not have the funds or ability to make your WordPress theme framework unique, you are going to get frustrated as your blog looks exactly like everyone else that just hit activate and got to work writing.

While there are some premium child themes on the market and companies like Studiopress offer different child themes to go over their frameworks, be prepared to spend extra cash on top of the framework itself if you do not have CSS and php knowledge. Theme frameworks are not just plug and play like some other options from WooThemes, Elegant Themes and WPZoom which offer more out of the box options.

SEO Integration vs. Long Term Options

One of the marketing tricks of WordPress theme frameworks has been SEO integration. While I agree that their clean code does greatly help with SEO over time (Google hates messy code), theme frameworks also advertise their SEO integration with titles, descriptions and other elements that were previously handled by plugins like All-In-One SEO. In my opinion, by integrating all of those elements into your theme, you are marrying yourself to that theme over time and insuring your repeat custom basis with that WordPress framework by making it harder to switch in the future if you look to integrate a different look or framework. While it is true that less plugins equal a faster site, I still keep my SEO duties to a plugin so if I want to change my theme sometime in the future…I do not have to worry about porting that integration.

My Recommendation To Bloggers

As you are probably wondering by now…what is my recommendation to bloggers as you look to WordPress themes as a way to make your blog unique? Both of my main blogs are now running theme frameworks for the benefits they provide my sites. However, I have enough CSS and php knowledge to create that custom look that I was after without having to spend any extra money for a custom design. If you do not have the ability or funds to create a more custom look than the standard white on black that theme frameworks provide, I would start looking at places like WooThemes, Elegant Themes, WPZoom and Theme Forest to find a layout and look that fits your blog. There are enough great looking premium themes out there that you should not have to worry about looking exactly like your competition.

If you can afford to pony up for the custom look or premium child theme, WordPress theme frameworks are a great way to get clean code and a custom look without paying the high cost of a full blown custom WordPress option. The cost difference is in the thousands and there are plenty of quality designers that will work straight over any of the theme framework options. That also provides you with a solid platform to create edits as you see fit without having to contact your designer with every change.

As with most things in life, there is not one solution for everyone. You need to look into your needs and abilities to see what is the right choice for you. Just because everyone else is doing it…that does not mean it is the right option for your blog. If you plan on throwing up a stock install of a Worpress theme framework and making a lasting impression on your readers…you are going to be disappointed in the end.

Theme References Mentioned In Article:

WordPress Theme Frameworks

Premium WordPress Themes

Filed Under: Blogging, Wordpress Theme Tagged With: blog, blog design, blog software, blogger, children themes, computing, content management systems, for your, framework, frameworks, genesis theme, is a, market share, pagelines theme, php programming language, plug in, premium wordpress themes, premiums, software architecture, software engineering, software framework, studiopress, theme, themes, thesis theme, wordpress, wordpress blog, wordpress theme, wordpress theme framework, wordpress themes, world wide web

Interviews With Bloggers That Are Actually Valuable

November 15, 2010 By Robb Sutton 4 Comments

The latest trend in the blogging world has been to incorporate interviews in your content generation. I for one believe we have a lot to learn from those related minds around us and that is why I include interviews on all of my sites as they generate interesting content for readers. However, in the mmo/blogging niche, the interviews seem to center around the same cookie cutter questions (trust me…I have done the same interview about a dozen times at least) which makes them boring as hell. How many times can I be asked “how do you make money online?”?!!!

Awhile back, I was interviewed by Srini about diversifying income streams online and it was a refreshing conversation. I didn’t feel like I was getting asked the same questions I have been asked a thousand times…it was an organic conversation on what it really takes to be successful online. I was one of the first they interview on BlogcastFM.com and now they have an astounding list of over 100 bloggers they have interviewed on numerous subjects.

To help compile all of this incredible content into something that is useful that you can take action on, Srini and Sid (founders of Blogcastfm) have put together a premium coaching program based off of their massive amount of success breading content and BlogcastFM premium was born…

Within the doors of BlogcastFM you get:

“BlogcastFM Premium gets you access to 12 expert interviews a month, coupled with actionable worksheets and mindmaps to give you the advanced training you need to take your blog to the next level fast.”

Experts From Different Fields. We bring in experts who have succeeded across the board – so you don’t just hear what’s worked for one person, or one exceptional case. You get advice, techniques and strategies that have been successful for many people, in a variety of niches.
Frequently Published Training – Updated Every Week. We’re constantly bringing you new content so you know what’s working in blogging today – not what used to work five years ago. We bring back experts when they have new information to share with us, but we also focus on getting timeless advice and techniques you can use as well.
Expert Audio Interviews coupled with Killer Documents. By combining audio training with actionable notes, you’re going to get the absolute most out of every expert we bring on. We also organize everything discussed into detailed mind maps for you – so you never miss a single technique or strategy.

I would love to spell out just everything you get in one blog post (I have have a membership so I have seen the content), but there is honestly so much actionable content within the doors it is crazy. Right off the bat you get modules based off of Adam Baker (Man Vs Debt), Dave Navarro (Launch Coach), Scott Stratten (UnMarketing), Yaro Starak (Entrepreneurs Journey), Michael Martine (Remarkablogger) and others with at least 12 new ones hitting every week. Next up to bat is my friend David Risley so that should be a great one to check out.

It isn’t very often that I promote coaching programs like this because I truly believe there are very few out there that are worth anything. However, after having interacted and worked with these guys in the past and having seen first hand what they have done with this program, I definitely recommend it for bloggers of all skill levels whether you are making money online already or just looking to get started. I for one am excited about what they have in store for the future and I will actually be taking action on their content and worksheets as well. There is always something I can learn from others to improve my business.

Their introductory price is going to end on Thursday November 19th, so check it out now while the going is hot.

Check out BlogcastFM and the full list of features by clicking here.

By the way…word on the street is that my module will be going live sometime in the future as well.

Filed Under: Blogging, Generating Cash, Reviews Tagged With: a-list blogging, become a better blogger, blog coaching, blogcastfm premium, blogger interviews, coaching products, how to blog, make money online

How I Increased My Newsletter Signups By 150% In 3 Minutes

July 19, 2010 By Robb Sutton 17 Comments

In the blog world, your #1 resource for traffic and making money online is your list. While some are hesitant to start an email newsletter, the fact remains that if you want to be successful online, it is a necessity…not an option. Since the number of targeted subscribers to your list directly correlates to your success online, bloggers like myself are always testing new ways to get people to signup. Up to this point, a Lightbox Hover has been the highest converting method to convert casual readers into newsletter subscribers and long time readers and…as you have probably noticed…the lightbox hover on RobbSutton.com has drastically changed.

How I Increased My Newsletter Signups by 150% and Higher

It shouldn’t be surprising that people really protect their email address online. With as much spam that hits our inboxes on a regular basis, online security has become a growing problem over the years. As an online entrepreneur/blogger, it is your job to show professionalism and poise when asking for email addresses. So…your first impression is everything in converting that causal first time reader into a subscriber and first impressions all come down to design.

Unfortunately for most bloggers, design is one area that is often too expensive or overlooked in the pursuit of online superstardom and even though Aweber has made drastic strides in making lightbox hovers, you still do not have a high converting, easy to setup design process that will drastically help you grow your blog…

Until now…

A friend of mine in the blogging world, Michael Dunlop, hit me up to start testing a new plugin that is now available to the public. PopupDomination is an extremely easy to configure plugin that takes your newsletter subscription service (I use Aweber) and inserts that into a fantastic Lightbox hover that goes live on your blog. While I was going to throw up some screenshots of how I configured this plugin in 3 minutes and had it live on the sites, I thought it would be better to just show you with this short video.

Product Links: PopupDomination | Aweber

As you can see by the video…I custom taylored the Lightbox to match the site, and the conversions went through the roof.

Does that mean I recommend PopupDomination? Absolutely and I think you are going to see a lot of bloggers do the same.

The $37 dollars this plugin costs has already paid for itself and more on my blogs in only 3 days of operation.

The only thing I wish it had (which is already in development) is split testing and when that feature goes live…it is going to add an extremely strong foundation to an already fantastic plugin.

Buy You Own Copy Of PopupDomination by Clicking Here

Still not sure you need an email list? Check out this article series to see why you need to get started today: The 1 Thing Your Blog Can’t Live Without

Filed Under: Blogging, Generating Cash, Plugins, Reviews, Tutorials/How To Tagged With: aweber, blog, Blogging, make money online, newsletter signups, optins

Review: MarketMeTweet – Twitter and Facebook Client with Branding

July 12, 2010 By Robb Sutton 6 Comments

Once Twitter exploded on the scene, coders and programers all over the world started coming up with Twitter clients to satisfy the needs of the Twitter obsessed. With many paid and free options, you are now able to find a Twitter client that manages your social media needs down to a T. One of the newer clients to hit the market is MarketMeTweet.

While MarketMeTweet does do most of the same things that the other paid and free clients accomplish, it does come with a few exclusive features that could meet your Twitter and social media posting needs. Let’s dive in and take a look…

Features: MarketMeTweet – Facebook and Twitter Client

Every Twitter and Facebook client has its own set of features, so let’s take a look at MarketMeTweet’s. While this is not a comprehensive list of features, these are the highlights before we move forward.

Unlimited Accounts
Brand Management (Tweets show up as Tweeted from “whatever you pick, linked to your site)
Schedule Tweets
Schedule Tweets from Blackberry, iPhone or Android (through Google calendar)
Facebook Integration (unlimited fan pages)
Location Targeting
Reply Campaigns (completely user controlled automation)
Auto RSS Tweets (import your RSS feed into Tweets)
Smart Following and Unfollowing
OAuth Secure
Multiple Pricing Options

Review: MarketMeTweet – Social Networking For Real Business

MarketMeTweet is very unique when it comes to Twitter and Facebook. While it does what you would expect out of any desktop client (posting Tweets/Facebook updates, multiple timelines, scheduling Tweets), there are several features of MarketMeTweet that really set it apart from the other free and paid clients on the web, so let’s take a look at those individually.

Personal Branding On Twitter

MarketMeTweet has a really cool feature built into the application that allows you to create your own Twitter application. Now what does this do for you…the blogger or business owner? It allows you to create an application within Twitter that changes your byline to include “via Robb Sutton” or anything you choose below your tweets. That “Robb Sutton” is also linked to RobbSutton.com so anytime it shows up in the timeline of one of my thousands of Twitter followers, it is clickable right back to my homepage as you can see below.

What does it do for your business or blog? Well…for those Twitter followers that use the web client for Twitter, you are no longer promoting your Twitter client. You are now promoting your own personal brand which carries a lot of weight online. When MarketMeTweet first hit the market, this was the #1 feature I was most interested in as I like to keep branding as secure and consistent as possible, and it works flawlessly.

Auto Replys and Automatic Following and Unfollowing

One of the other really cool features within MarketMeTweet is the ability to auto reply to your followers based on keyword selection. Now…before you start thinking, “wow…that is spammy” let me explain just a little bit. Yes, if you are planning on setting up just a couple of lines of reply and hitting up as many keywords as you can and then leave it alone without paying any attention to it later, you are going to be a spammer. On my end, I do not have time to go through my Twitter timeline for hours on end a day, so this allows me to start conversations with other Twitter users based on information I want to talk about. It is not a set it and forget it system…you still have to interact after the fact if you really want to see results.

As you can see by the screenshot, you can also create “negative keywords” to better filter your results.

These days, I do not use too many (ok…none) auto follow services. Don’t get me wrong…I have used them in the past and they have helped me find new Twitter users that are looking for the information I provide. I just don’t have the time to manage applications like that for the return it brings me at this point in time.

With MarketMeTweet you can use that same keyword strings that you created to handle your auto replies to auto follow to auto follow Twitter users that are talking about subjects you want to connect with. Unlike other auto follow scripts, the MarketMeTweet version is pretty light so it stays underneath the radar while you grow your Twitter following. It also does it via the keywords I have already set up and in the background so I am able to just hit a switch without too much time management on the backend.

Final Thoughts: MarketMeTweet Twitter and Facebook Client

Overall, the MarketMeTweet desktop client for Twitter and Facebook is a strong application. With a user friendly, easy on the eyes interface and Adobe Air integration (makes for easy update and launching), MarketMeTweet answers all of the Twitter and Facebook needs you should have for your blog or business. With unique features that are very focused and provide real results, MarketMeTweet justifies it’s paid status as a Twitter and Facebook desktop client.

Is it perfect? Not completely. MarketMeTweet does its unique features incredibly well, but there are a couple of little usability options I would like to see included into newer versions. I would also to be able to setup panes on an account basis so I can see multiple accounts at once on one screen. Right now…you have to switch accounts through a drop down menu to see the different timelines, replies and search queries.

If MarketMeTweet really want to rock it out, an iPhone app would completely make my day as most of my Tweeting is done on the road and the branding element would be great on my iPhone (you can schedule Tweets on the road through the Google Calendar integration).

Positives: MarketMeTweet Client

Branding – HUGE! The ability to brand your Tweets is unique and strengthens your brand.
Auto Reply and Auto Follow – Done easily and in the background to grow your blog or business
User friendly interface that is easy to setup and use
Free updates
RSS feed and scheduling tweets integration
Post To All Feature covers Facebook, Twitter and Pingfm

Negatives: MarketMeTweet Client

A couple little usability additions need to be added in future updates (outlined above)
Not really an application for the casual Twitter user
Limited mobile phone support

With pricing plans starting at 15 bucks with strong support and a 30 day money back guarantee, MarketMeTweet is the answer for blog and business owners looking to expand their business and stay on top of the trending topics on Twitter. If you are looking for a Twitter and Facebook client that will meet the needs of your business or blog, MarketMeTweet is your answer.

If you want to see more:Click here to check out MarketMeTweet.

As an FYI, I actually bought a copy of MarketMeTweet, this was not a freebie for review.

Filed Under: Applications, Reviews, Social Media Tagged With: auto follow, blog tool, facebook client, marketmetweet, review, schedule tweets, Social Media, twitter client

Standout Comments – Making Opt In's Easy

May 3, 2010 By Robb Sutton 7 Comments

One of the biggest problems most bloggers face is increasing opt-ins. You want more people to sign up for your newsletter, your rss feed, follow you on Twitter or submit your articles to social media outlets. It is what ultimately grows our blogs past our friends and family and into that “successful zone” where you are actually generating something out of your little corner of the web.

I got an email from a friend of mine in the blogosphere last week letting me know about his new plugin called Standout Comments. He happens to know a little bit about opt-ins and how to be successful online, so I thought to myself…”ok John Chow…let’s see what this things got!”. I downloaded it and installed it on my blogs…so let’s take a look what this thing actually does.

Standout Comments: The Lowdown

From what I can tell through using Standout Comments (you can see it on this site) is the entire premise is making it easier for your readers to opt in to your rss, newsletter, Twitter and social media avenues. Now…we all know this already, but it is essential to make things as easy as possible for your readers because if it is even just a little bit difficult…they aren’t going to do it…no matter how much they like you and your blog.

Once installed and configured through the clean, easy to use admin panel, your readers are presented with a few more new options when they are leaving a comment on your blog. With an easy check of a box, they can do four things:

Signup for your rss feed via email.
Signup for your email newsletter.
Follow you on Twitter.
Subscribe to comments left on that article.

The plugin uses the the name and email address provided in the comment form fields to give your readers the option to sign up for your opt-ins with the ease of a single click. I don’t know about you…but it doesn’t get any easier that that!

You can also choose which social media submit icons display much like the Sharable plugin by checking boxes in the admin panel.

I have been using this plugin for about a week and I have been very happy with the result. It is easy enough to use that any blogger can get it setup correctly and running without issue. It also does what we all ultimately want…it makes it incredibly easy for the commenters on your site to become a part of your community. With all of the rest of the noise on the web (that increases daily), it provides you with the means to stay in touch and bring more readers back to your content…further growing your blog.

Check out Standout Comments for yourself by clicking here.

Edited to add: Did I mention that you can win a free iPad if you install Standout Comments in the month of May?! Well…now you know.

Filed Under: Plugins, Reviews Tagged With: blog comments, how to get more opt ins, standout comments, wordpress plugin, wordpress plugin review

eBook Publishing: How To Make Cheap eBook Covers

March 31, 2010 By Robb Sutton 12 Comments

I have been searching for a way to make cheap eBook covers for quite some time now. Luckily, just as I was about to purchase an expensive set of plugins for Photoshop, John Chow posted up a new service that takes care of all kinds of eBook and eCourse images that is CHEAP! Normally, you are paying somewhere in the 80-100 dollar range to pick up a software package to do this, but with myecovermaker.com…you can make individual covers for about 3 bucks a pop, or you can make 100 covers a month for 9 dollars a month!

I was just in the middle of finalizing a new free eBook I am publishing for Bike198.com, so this came at perfect time for me. You really have no excuse at this point for not having a cool looking eBook cover on your free or paid eBook. I like to design my own covers using the supplied Photoshop templates you can download on the site, but you can also design your own using template backgrounds and adding text directly on the site. Here is the latest that I just built up this morning using myecovermaker.com.

Cheap eBook Cover Generator

I am not in any way affiliated with this website, so I am not making any money by promoting this. Every now and then I run into a really cool resource that I want to share with you guys and this is one of them.

Filed Under: Blogging, Reviews, Tutorials/How To Tagged With: ebook cover generation, free ebook, how to make an ebook, how to make an ebook cover